Did you see that? We did all 32 km walking!!!
Going through an agricultural area, we spent quite a bit of time examining the irrigation system. This is the way one passes the time (and learns a lot) on a long walk.
Irrigation works
A farmer told me they couldn’t harvest last year’s sugar beets until now because of too much rain. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the sugar beets from a pile of rocks.
Sugar beets
We stopped in Hospital de Órbigo for a proper mid-day meal.
Before
After
We hadn’t planned such a long distance, but the day went well.
At the 28 km point we phoned ahead to make sure a comfortable room was waiting, and we kept walking. Soon the skies opened. It was getting dark and chilly so we had to stop in the shelter of a complicated overpass going over the train tracks into Astorga, and put on rain gear, even though we were only a couple of kilometers from our destination.
We were a bedraggled pair walking into the Hotel Peseta, but I’m sure they’ve seen worse. We enjoyed the amenities of the nice hotel.
In the lap of pilgrim luxury
We had a dinner in the company of an Austrian gentleman who we had met a few hours before when we helped him straighten out his rain poncho.
Seeing Clarely 
So happy to hear that you’re forging ahead. Enjoy Astorga and the days ahead!
Maybe we could have done the VdlP, with a few rest days, but it was beginning to feel too fragmented. The mixing and matching works better here.
Well done Clare.
We were pleased with ourselves!
Clare do you speak Spanish. Was it difficult to understand the farmer explaining how the irrigation system worked? We (3) are departing Melbourne airport in a couple of hours and none of us speak a word of Spanish
I do speak Spanish fairly well. It is enough to ask the questions and get a general idea of the answer, but often have trouble understanding complicated answers. It this case I asked about the sugar beets but not the irrigation. Many people walk happily with no Spanish, but bring Google Translate!